________________
Jiy
VAJJALAOGAM
in particular. Kṛṣṇa is here identified with Keśava and Hari and is spoken of as पुराणपुरुष and त्रिभुवननमित, and Laksmi is referred to as his consort. All this points to the belief in the divine nature of Krsna and in his being an incarnation of Vişnu; (11) another whole section ( PTFT st. 606-610) deals with the private life of Siva and Pārvati.
Although the VL is, according to Jayavallabha himself, only a collection of Subhāṣitas composed by different poets, we find in it considerable literary merit, which confirms the claim of the author that he has included in the collection the best stanzas that he could lay his hands on. We must unhesitatingly credit Jaya. vallabha with literary judgement of a high order in selecting stanzas for his anthology and it is even likely that just like Hāla he was not a mere compiler but an editor who may have given to many of the stanzas their final form and finish and may even have composed some of them (e.g. the introductory stanzas 1.31) himself.
Jayavallabha says in st. 1 that he is presenting in his anthology the excellent utterances of wise people (सुयणाण सुहासिय वोच्छ ). Thus according to Jayavallabha the stanzas in the present collec. tion are Subhāṣitas. If we examine the nature of the stanzas, we find that a good many of them are gafas in the sense of apothegms or epigrams i.e. terse, pithy, instructive sayings on morality and worldly wisdom (e.g. stanzas in the FAFFH1, EST, #895571, casal, 1189571, 1751, gitaal etc. ). But there are besides these many other stanzas which are without any obvious didactic motive and are purely descriptive ( e.g. the stanzas in 17879521, $599551, 51, 799581, 1971, gfal, 4184351, 1951, diafraint, the sections on the seasons of the year etc.). These too are to be regarded as Subhāṣitas in the sense that they are clever wordpictures tersely presenting various things, ideas and situations, in an apt, appealing and convincing 'manner. Brevity and clever. ness are the most important features of all guferas, whether they are didactic or descriptive, or whether they are in prose or verse. They do away with all non-essential details and confining themselves only to the most salient, striking and essential points, convey to the readers (or listeners ) a very clear and vivid idea of the matter dealt with.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
